Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

Jeremy Lerner

Taylor Hawley

Scott Huggins

Xingping Chen

Jason Joseph Woo

Jae Hyung Lim

Ali Abdallah

Mohammad Abouali

Danielle Rosenblatt

Joseph Gifford

Omar Makke

Navid Tafaghodi Khajavi

Ryan Jones

Timothy D Zwicky

James Issac

Paige Wong

Oleg Yurievitch Gusikhin

Jochen Schubert

Daniel Sullivan

Xiangrui Zeng

Nicholas Frazier

Andrew Edward Toy

Nitendra Nath

Andrea Bowes Chowanic

Alexander Groh

Joseph Walter Neal

Clifton Thomas

Md Nahid Pervez

Nahid Pervez

Natalie Arguello

Dina Tayim

A vehicle includes one or more sensors and engages at least one of the one or more sensors to evaluate at least one of a count or location of vehicle occupants prior to an incident. The vehicle determines that an incident has occurred and that at least one of an evaluated count or location of at least one vehicle occupant has changed following the incident. Also, the vehicle engages at least one of the one or more sensors to detect a presence of a prior occupant outside the vehicle following the incident, responsive to determining that the at least one of the evaluated count or location of the at least one vehicle occupant changed and, responsive to detecting the presence of the prior occupant outside the vehicle following the incident, reports the presence to a 3party response entity.

Responder assistance for vehicular events

Optimizing a charger network is provided. For each vehicle trip of a plurality of vehicle trips defined by trip information maintained to a storage, a set of possible routes from an origin location of the respective vehicle trip to a destination location of the respective vehicle trip is generated using a routing algorithm. Best routes are identified based on the set of possible routes. Individual charger recommendations are identified using the best routes. Collective charger recommendations across the plurality of vehicle trips based on the individual charger recommendations. The collective charger recommendations are utilized to optimize the charger network.

EV charging station optimization

A system comprises a computer having a processor and a memory, the memory storing instructions executable by the processor to access sensor data of a sensor of a vehicle while an adaptive cruise control feature of the vehicle is active, detect, based on the sensor data, an object located along a path of travel of the vehicle, determine that the object is a moveable object based on a radar return of a radar reflector of the object, and responsive to the determination that the object is the moveable object, adjust, by the adaptive cruise control feature, the speed of the vehicle.

Enhanced radar recognition for automated vehicles

A system includes a computer on board a vehicle and a server remote from the vehicle. The computer and the server each store a network graph of actions performable by components of the vehicle that includes costs of transitioning between the actions. The computer is programmed to log a sequence of the actions; upon determining that a sub-sequence of the sequence constitutes a lowest-cost path from the beginning action to the final action based on the network graph, store a reduced sequence including a beginning action and a final action of the sub-sequence ordered immediately after the beginning action, the reduced sequence excluding at least one intermediate action from the sub-sequence; and transmit the reduced sequence to a server remote from the vehicle. The server is programmed to determine the sequence from the reduced sequence based on the network graph.

Vehicle data transmission

A system comprises a computer having a processor and a memory, the memory storing instructions executable by the processor to monitor a position of a vehicle while an adaptive cruise control feature of the vehicle is set to operate in a standard operation mode, identify, based on the position of the vehicle and on visibility zone information, a limited visibility zone in a route of travel of the vehicle, and cause the adaptive cruise control feature to operate in a modified operation mode while the vehicle is in the limited visibility zone, wherein during operation in the modified operation mode, the adaptive cruise control feature operates in accordance with one or more modified operating parameters.

Adaptive cruise control based on information about low visibility zones

Intelligent ticketing and data offload planning is provided. A data center receives a ticket request from a vehicle requesting to perform a data upload of vehicle data over a communications network. An optimizer is utilized to generate a ticket, the ticket specifying a time and a location for the vehicle to perform the data upload. The ticket is received from the vehicle. The ticket is validated to ensure that the vehicle should still perform the data upload. The vehicle is indicated to perform the data upload over the communications network responsive to the optimizer confirming the data upload to proceed. The data upload is stored to a storage of the data center.

Intelligent ticketing and data offload planning for connected vehicles

The disclosure is generally directed to systems and methods for a mobile device including transmitting a request by the mobile device for a route that considers transportation modalities and route conditions, the request including location data of the mobile device, receiving a recommended route, the recommended route based on low energy hardware based classification of conditions associated with a plurality of available routes, and receiving a recommended transport modality vehicle and a list of known vehicle identifiers associated with the location data. Low energy wireless signals are received by the mobile device with low energy hardware based classifiers from a mobility vehicle including dedicated hardware including a being a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and/or hardware supporting a spiking neural network (SNN), the hardware receiving camera and microphone inputs.

Multimodal route data collection for improved routing

Transportation-based service share systems and methods are disclosed herein. An example method can include receiving a request from a service provider to reserve a ridehail vehicle for a ridehail having a time frame, the request specifying a service provided by the service provider; determining the ridehail vehicle for the service provider based on the service; and dispatching the ridehail vehicle, the service provider rendering the service during the ridehail.

Transportation-based service share systems and methods

A system comprises a computer having a processor and a memory, the memory storing instructions executable by the processor to access sensor data of a first sensor of a vehicle while an adaptive cruise control feature of the vehicle is active, detect, based on the sensor data of the first sensor, a stationary object located along a path of travel of the vehicle, wherein the stationary object is located outside of a range of a second sensor of the vehicle, determine a presence of an intersection within a threshold distance of the stationary object that is along the path of travel of the vehicle, and responsive to a determination that the stationary object is a stopped vehicle of the intersection, adjust, by the adaptive cruise control feature, the speed of the vehicle.

Adaptive cruise control with non-visual confirmation of obstacles

The disclosure generally pertains to systems and methods to predict a vehicle preference of a customer of a rental vehicle agency. An example method to do so involves a computer executing a prediction procedure to obtain and evaluate information associated with a customer. The information can include vehicle ownership history and/or monitoring data obtained from vehicles used by the customer (a personal vehicle, a taxi, and/or a ride share service vehicle, for example). The information may be evaluated by the computer to determine a personal profile of the customer. The personal profile can include items such as physical attributes of the customer, family size, driving characteristics, and/or past vehicle ownership. The personal profile of the customer may then be used by the computer to predict a type of vehicle preferred by the customer and to select, from a vehicle fleet, a vehicle that matches the preferred type of vehicle.

Systems and methods to predict rental vehicle preference of a customer

Methods, apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacture to extend brake life cycle are disclosed herein. An example vehicle disclosed herein includes a brake including a rotor and a brake pad and a brake controller to detect a request to determine a wear level of the brake pad, activate the brake to cause contact between the brake pad and the rotor, and determine, based on a latency between the activation of the brake and the contact between the brake pad and the rotor, the wear level.

Methods and apparatus to determine brake pad wear

A vehicle determines that a stop is upcoming along a route and determines that the upcoming stop will place the vehicle within range of a wireless transceiver. The vehicle approximates a predicted transfer rate of the wireless transceiver and determines if data onboard the first vehicle is to be uploaded, based on at least a size of the data, a priority assigned to the data and the predicted transfer rate. Additionally, the vehicle determines a predicted duration of communication between the vehicle and the transceiver based on the route and the upcoming stop, allowing the vehicle to determine a first predicted amount of data able to be transferred. The vehicle designates first data for upload, based on the first data having a size that is below the first predicted amount and begins transferring the designated data responsive to establishing communication with the wireless transceiver.

Connected vehicle data offload management

Enhancing operation of powered tools is provided. Access permissions for tools and access devices are stored to in vehicle memory. Presence of a tool within proximity to the vehicle is detected. Presence of access devices configured to provide access to the vehicle are detected utilizing passive access functionality of the vehicle. Access to an auxiliary power source of the vehicle is allowed for powering the tool responsive to the access permissions granting access due to the presence of the access devices.

Vehicle connectivity for enhancing powered tool operation

Example embodiments described in this disclosure are generally directed to using a vehicle to identify a status of a garage door, such as, for identifying whether the garage door is fully closed, fully open, or partially open. The identification may be carried out in response to an inquiry from an individual, such as, a driver of the vehicle that has exited through the garage door. A detection apparatus such as an image capture system or an ultrasonic sensor that can be a part of a vehicle security system may be used for identifying the status of the garage door. The image capture system may capture and store an image of the garage door when the vehicle is exiting the garage. Upon receiving an inquiry from the driver, the garage door status detection system may display the image on a smartphone of the driver or an infotainment system in the vehicle.

Using a vehicle to identify a status of a garage door

This disclosure describes systems and methods for determining vehicle parking scores. An example method may include calculating, subsequent to a first vehicle parking within a first parking space of a parking lot and based on first sensor data obtained by the first vehicle, a first vehicle parking score. The example method may also include calculating, subsequent to a second vehicle parking within the first parking space of the parking lot and based on second sensor data obtained by the second vehicle, a second vehicle parking score. The example method may also include calculating a first average vehicle parking score for the first parking space based on the first vehicle parking score and the second vehicle parking score. The example method may also include presenting an indication of the first average vehicle parking score for the first parking space to a third vehicle within the parking lot.

Growing community of inventors

Southfield, MI, United States of America

Jeremy Lerner